Welp, all packed up, we drove for five or so hours from New York to Washington D.C. today, stopping once for a toilet/fuel break and once for lunch. The place we happened to stop at gave us some yummy pepperoni pizza, and before we left the South African boys’ choir turned up, ready for their lunch. And we thought everyone was going in separate directions from New York!

It was afternoon by the time we arrived at our hotel in D.C., the Skyline, and I just want to mention that I can see the Capitol from my hotel room. No biggie.

Everyone was thoroughly exhausted after all of our work in New York, so a lot of people leapt at the chance to do nothing. A few groups went out and explored the area on foot or by taxi, getting even as far as the White House itself. Ooee! That seems so strange. We’re here, but even the view through the window seems less real than if we’d stuck up a cardboard cut-out. I don’t know why. Probably because we’re so used to having such a great distance between us and all of these fancy American things. We’ll all get home and think that yes, we went to America, but it wasn’t the real (ie. fake) America. Something that is real, though, is the sirens that stream past every hour or so and the heat. It’s Australian heat, but in altogether the wrong time of the year. Oh well, I could do with a swim anyway, as soon as the pool clears out.